In the field of window or door frames and casings it is known to use handles that are applied to the profile that forms the side of the moveable swings opposite that at which the articulation hinges of the movable swing itself are fixed and the rotation of which handles activates, by means of a suitable moving device housed inside such a same profile, the sliding of one or more vertical rods also housed in the same profile.
These vertical rods, in turn, can activate or form closing members for closing the window or door frame.
The moving device—which, in the jargon is called “macchinetta” (“one or two way mechanism”)—supports and contains a rotary element provided with a coupling seat for coupling with the lever or handle pin and a mechanism that allows the rotary motion of such a rotary element to be transformed into translational motion of one or two sliders in turn coupleable with a respective said vertical rod.
As the type of window or door frame changes—internal opening, i.e. towards the inside of a room like, for example, the windows, or external opening, i.e. towards the outside of a room, like, for example, the louvre windows—both the type of the profiles that form the movable swing and the position of the control lever or handle pin change.
In particular, the distance between the axis of the pin of the control lever or handle and the external part of the profile on which it is applied changes; in the jargon, such a distance is indicated as “entrata della martellina” (i.e. “handle entry”) or “ingresso della martellina” (i.e. “handle inlet”) where “martellina” indicates the lever or handle pin.
In general, such a distance is of a limited size that takes into account both the width of the profile and the bulk of the lever or handle, which lever or handle, in particular for external opening windows and doors, must not strike against the other swing or the fixed frame of the window or door frame.
There are no reference standards for such a distance and each manufacturer has adopted its own, establishing, for each type of profile and window or door frames, set values of such a distance (“ingresso martellina” i.e. “handle inlet”).
Typically, such a distance is equal to 10 mm or 15 mm for internal opening window or door frames and to 30 mm or 35 mm for external opening window or door frames.
To each of such values corresponds a respective moving device or “macchinetta”.
Indeed, as the entry position of the lever or handle pin changes, the size of such a moving device or, at least, the position of the rotary element that is intended to couple with the lever or handle pin changes.
Every manufacturer, therefore, has, in general, a series of different moving devices (“macchinette”): one for each “entry” value of the lever or handle pin, with clear drawbacks in terms of design, production and storage management.
Moreover, at the mounting stage it is necessary to obtain a series of through-holes on the face of the profile on which the lever or handle is to be applied and at the seat inside which the moving device is housed. One of such holes is provided for the passage of the lever or handle pin and the others for the passage of fixing members of the same moving device (“macchinetta”).
If errors occur in making such holes, which do not allow the moving device to be aligned with the holes, i.e. the seat of the rotary element intended to couple with the lever or handle pin and the holes intended to be engaged by the fixing members, the profile needs to be discarded and the perforation operations need to be repeated on a new profile. This involves obvious drawbacks in terms of material and machining costs.
In known moving devices (“macchinette”), moreover, the rotary element consists of a reel that meshes one or two racks that face one another, extend in a direction parallel to or coinciding with the direction of translation of the slider(s) and each of which is fixed or in any case obtained in a respective slider.
Known moving devices (“macchinette”), as already stated above, are encased in seats obtained in the profile that forms the side of the frame of the movable swing of a window or door frame; this sets limitations to the overall bulk of such moving devices. In particular, the transversal size of such moving devices, i.e. the dimension thereof extending in a direction parallel to the plane of the movable swing and orthogonal to the direction of translation of the sliders and to the rotation axis of the reel, is contained within predetermined limits set by the shape and size of the seat of the profile in which the same moving device is housed.
For this reason, the reel has a limited diameter, which reflects in a low height of its teeth and which is even more marked in the case in which it must mesh with two instead of just one rack.
The conjugated surfaces of the teeth of the reel with the teeth of the rack or racks are, therefore, extremely reduced and the forces exerted by the users on the control lever or handle act on them.
Often, therefore, such teeth break, causing “jumping” and irregular operation of the moving devices and often requiring their total replacement.
All of this is aggravated by the fact that, in general, reel and racks are made of metal alloys with reduced characteristics of mechanical strength, such as zinc alloys (zama).